14 DAY TRIAL // WordPress 3.0 is just around the corner after quite a few months in development. It’s a major release with plenty of enhancements and fresh features like a brand-new default theme and the merger with WordPress MU. The developers have now outed WordPress 3.0 RC3, most likely the last release candidate. There are still a few bugs to be fixed, but the final release shouldn’t be away.
“A weekend present, in haiku: Last call; final bugs. Itch, scratch, contort; calmly wait. For now: RC3. That’s right. What will hopefully be the final release candidate, RC3, is now available for download and testing. Plugin developers: test your plugins!” read the rather cryptic announcement on the WordPress development blog.
It should be pretty safe to upgrade to WordPress 3.0 by now if you can’t wait a few more days for the final release. The developers hope this will be the last release candidate and, if everything goes smoothly, that should be the case.
There are still eight bug tickets open in the WordPress bug tracker labeled from “normal” to “critical” in terms of severity. None of them looks like a show stopper though, assuming nothing else comes up. As for WordPress RC3, it fixes some of the remaining bugs from the previous release candidate.
Some of the highlights of WordPress 3.0 include the new “Twenty Ten” (as in, 2010) default theme, which should make for a better base for creating your own theme, and the merger of WordPress MU (multi-user) code back into the main WordPress line.
For the regular user, there’s a new menu management feature, and better custom post types. WordPress 3.0 brings support for ‘child’ themes and the ability to customize the background of any theme. You can read more about what’s new in WordPress 3.0 here.
WordPress 3.0 RC3 is available for download here on Softpedia.